Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, has drawn national attention because of a page in a medical school yearbook that shows him pictured with a person in “blackface” and another in KKK garb. They are not flattering images and have prompted Democratic leaders in the state, and legions of others, to call for his resignation.

His situation was complicated because of his inept response to the controversy, first admitting the authenticity of the pictures and apologizing for them in a recorded statement, and then deciding that he was not one of the pictured people after all, while admitting doing “blackface” on another occasion. Not a particularly compelling defense.

He’s not the first public figure to be called to task for statements and conduct in years gone by. And the national discussion has prompted folks to scramble for a politically palatable way to address past transgressions, real and perceived.

Real ones are those that were clearly wrong — legally, morally or both — when they were committed. They are in a category unto themselves and require a latter-day response that differs from responding to a perceived transgression. Perceived transgressions change with the passage of time and evolving social morays.

So, for example, Northam’s yearbook was published some 35 years ago and, as a sign of the times, it’s notable that the medical school apparently thought that the photos were perfectly suitable for publication. As American poet James Russell Lowell so aptly wrote, “Time makes ancient good uncouth.” While that’s definitely true, even 35 years is probably not enough time to explain away that level of insensitivity — although we are talking about the state of Virginia. Sensitivity on such a subject may have been slower getting there than some other places. Around 1997, I can remember being in Florida and happening upon a public park where a KKK rally was unapologetically in full swing. It was horrifying but real.

I can still recall a Thanksgiving Day conversation among extended family and an uncle saying matter-of-factly that “darkies just have chicken stealin’ in their blood and can’t help themselves.” He was actually trying, albeit ineptly, to make a progressive, compassionate statement about people of color. He was saying that people of color should be forgiven for their shortcomings. It’s not their fault.

I can also recall, as a small child, having a best friend who was African-American, until I grew old enough to recognize our different skin pigmentation and that he was inexplicably treated differently. I stopped having him as a best friend, subconsciously wanting to avoid “guilt by association.” Reflecting upon that childhood experience over the years, with an increasing sense of shame, has informed my maturing process into adulthood.

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I served for three years as national chair of the Council of Urban Boards of Education, a consortium of the largest school districts in the country, most of which enroll a majority of racial minority students. Their school boards were similarly dominated by people of color and, believe you me, I got one hell of a further education on matters of racial prejudice and injustice that a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant guy from Iowa could not possibly get back home. To my credit, there was a time when I was participating remotely in a radio talk show being broadcast in California. After a half-hour or so of Q&A, the host took a commercial break and was talking to me off mic. Based on things I’d been saying, he said, “So you’re African American, is that right?” It struck me that I was not the man I once was.

The point is that we should always be learning and better informing our understanding of those who are different from ourselves in one way or another. Whether that’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, culture, disability; you name it.

Keeping up with ever-changing “political correctness” is a good thing, not meant for the culturally lazy, the inconsiderate, the un-empathetic, or the egotistically self-satisfied. I recall a Caucasian Iowa farmer who had two teenage sons, and invited two African American teens from the south to visit his farm in an exchange program. At one point he said to the four young men, “You boys go and do such-and-such.” The words were the same, but what was heard was decidedly NOT the same. His guests were taken aback by the use of the word "boys." The farmer had a needed teaching-and-learning moment. The next day he was not the man he once was.

Public figures need to be judged more by who they have become rather than who they once were. Demonstrating who they have become, so that people can judge them more fairly, is not an exact science. It may require more for some people or some transgressions than others. But we are never going to find perfect people measured against universal, never-changing values. Time does make ancient good uncouth, and that’s inevitable and is a good thing.

Christians should readily understand this because Jesus “grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and Man” (Luke 2:52). Jesus was wiser at the end of his life than he was at the beginning.

My problem with President Trump is that, unfortunately, he remains the man he once was. He is culturally lazy, un-empathetic, inconsiderate, and egotistically self-satisfied. Those are deplorable traits, and he appeals to many people who share those traits.